Skinned Alive Read Online Free PDF Page A

then he was driven out by the heat. He ended up lying naked and sweating on top of his sleeping bag slapping at the bugs. He’d lost weight on the trip and his eyes looked hollow and sunken in the moonlight. His beard was coming in thick and was made up of brass wires as straight as pine needles or pins. Howard, too, was lying on top of his sleeping bag but in his underpants.Danny turned toward Howard and smiled, then lay on his back with his legs apart and one arm thrown back over his eyes.
    Howard suddenly understood everything. Danny hated Otis and was jealous of everything he possessed, including Howard’s devotion. Danny had figured out that Howard was completely under his spell. He was competing with Otis for Howard’s love. Not because Danny wanted it—no, he wanted perversely to show that his power over Howard was stronger even than Otis’s. But if Howard ever responded—if Howard ever reached out and touched this body—then Danny would crow triumphantly, reject Howard brutally and demand of Otis if he and Howard were lovers and pansy playmates, Danny would tell everyone at Evanston High that they were fruits and Otis would be forced to give up Howard’s friendship.
    Howard was afraid he was going crazy. Danny hadn’t made a single sign that he was attempting to seduce Howard in order to denounce him and destroy his friendship with Otis. Danny might have his problems with Otis and he might naturally welcome an ally, but where was the slightest piece of evidence that he had any darker or more devious schemes? Perhaps Danny would welcome a handjob or blowjob, but that didn’t seem likely. After all, Howard was the one with the hard-on, not Danny. Danny’s penis (it was big) lay there peacefully beside a scrotum made large and shiny by the heat, like a serpent dozing and curled around its two eggs.
    When they returned the canoe and tent to the outfitter’s there were still a few hours left before dark and they drove into Ely, Minnesota, and took a motel room, then cruised the streets and smoked cigarettes—Luckies this time since they’d finished the carton of Parliaments, and Luckies went better with their beards and tans. Howard looked forward to being alone again soon with Otis; together they could push off from the shore of reality and float on their dreams even if in separateboats, twin beds. In the motel bathroom Howard had been gratified to see how golden tan he was and how his beard, scrappy though it might be, still made him look older and more manly. But he wondered if looking more virile wouldn’t actually make him less attractive to Danny.
    Otis said he was horny for some pussy and told Danny to drive slowly to the curb while he trolled for it. He asked two really young girls who were maybe in junior high school if they wanted a ride home and they just giggled and ran. One older woman scowled and said nothing and Howard was afraid she’d report them to the cops.
    Danny was laughing like a banshee and drumming the steering wheel with pleasure. Maybe Otis was following Howard’s advice to play the fuck-up and cast Danny in the more responsible role, even if it was too late for that. Anyway, since they’d turned in the canoe Danny had reverted to his old personality, become nicer, more reasonable and well spoken. For a second Howard considered the possibility that Danny had felt an attraction for him and had been fending it off by playing dumb and dirty.
    Otis changed his technique with the next girl. He said, “We’re nice guys. You can see that, can’t you, miss? We’re just lonely backwoodsmen. You’ve heard of the voyageurs?”
    She laughed and said, “You’re not even from around here. You have Illinois license plates.”
    “That doesn’t mean we’re not lonely. Ride with us for a few blocks, miss. We’ll buy you a beer. No harm being nice to three lonely guys, is there?”
    Howard braced himself for her outrage but suddenly she smiled and said, “OK,” and slipped in beside